The Egyptian Fellahs

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THE EGYPTIAN EELLAHS.

Th^ incomparable fertility of the valley of the Nile has ever
had peculiar attractions, and ever excited the desire for con-
quest, in the minds of those whose ambition it has been to
extend the bounds of empire, and increase the number of their
slaves. The people of Egypt, with their noble country, their
abundant harvests, their treasures of mineralogy, their temples
and palaces, have ungrudgingly given of their abundance to
the world ; they love their country, their date forests, their
colossal architecture, reared when time was young, their Nile
• with its annual inundations irrigating their fields, its banks
covered with the blue lotus ; and the mighty granite structures

to Moslem rulers. Arab viceroys have reigned in the land of
the Pharaohs ; Turkish independent 'princes have held sway
over Egypt ; it has been governed by Arab khaleefehs ; by a
dynasty of Kurds ; by Turkish and by Circassian sultans, who
in their youth were mamlukes, or slaves ; it has been annexed
to the Turkish empire, and governed by Turkish pachas, in
conjunction with mamlukes— and become a prey to the mam-
lukes alone. The Erench lily has conquered the crescent.
France has wrested the govermnent from the Turks, and the
government has again been wrested by the English from the
Erench, and so restored to the Turks. The history of Egypt

AN EGYPTIAN FELLAH.

which separated them from the arid sand plains ; Egypt, as
his fatherland, is dear, to the Egyptian.

"The soil of Egypt," the Egyptians were accustomed to
say, " for three months in the year is white and sparkling like
pearl ; for three it is green like an emerald ; and for three it is
yellow like amber." Such was its fertility that it was re-
garded as the granary of the world.

But the character of the people is essentially pacific. They
have no love for the glory of arms, and their enemies have
experienced but little difficulty in overcoming them, so ill able
are they to defend themselves from predatory incursions. In
the year 640-41, the hardy shepherds of Arabia became masters
of Egypt ; and since that period it has continued to be subject

is one continued struggle, with which the Egyptians them-
selves have had very little to do. The conquest of Egypt by
the Turks under Sultan Seleem, in the year 1517, rendered
the condition of the labouring population much worse than it
formerly had been. The Turks had no notion of cultivating
the land, and, therefore, treated with extreme rigour the agri-
cultural classes, whom they compelled to labour so unremit-
tingly, that they were reduced to the most abject state of
slavery. Egypt was then divided into four-and-twenty pro-
vinces, each of which was placed under the military jurisdiction
of a mamluke bey ; and the four-and-twenty beys were subject
to the authority of a Turkish pacha, a general governor,
appointed by the sultan. Nearly two centuries after the

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conquest of Egypt by the Sultan Seleem, - the authority of
each successive pacha was, with few exceptions, respected by
the beys, but the latter- by degrees obtained the. ascendancy,-
and Egypt became subject to a military . oligarchy.

The agricultural laboruers who had been thus enslaved at
the invasion of Sultan , Seleem were, for the most part, the.,
inhabitants of one particular district, they were. called Fellahs.
They are now to be found in every, part of the country. They
have become united with neighbouring nomade tribes. The
traveller, cannot fail to observe; the general likeness and
characteristics which they all possess, and ■• the . resemblance
which may be traced between the modem and ancient Egyp-
tians. The same soil, the same^skyj the same water, the same
acts, the same work at certain times, the same alternations of
hope and fear, the same sphere of ideas ; in a word, the cir-
cumstances of life entirely identical, must of necessity exercise
a powerful influence over beings modified" by the laws of
creation according to the country which they inhabit, and
which conforms thought, feeling, expression, physiognomy,
to the objects by which' they are" surrounded. Thus.it would
appear that the Fellahs are the veritable descendants of the
ancient Egyptians, rather than from the Copts, to which origin
it has sometimes been endeavoured to trace them." The
peculiarities of this people, and the peculiarities of the ancient
people of Egypt, are totally dissimilar. The Copts were without
agriculturists, without artisans, without commerce, without
government, and thus continue from generation. to generation
— an uncultivated nomade tribe ; the Egyptians, on the other
hand, were celebrated for all those tilings of which the Copts
were entirely destitute. ..-•■•_

The Egyptian agriculturist is tall, vigorous, and well-pro-
portioned ; his features regular, his eyes dark, deeply sunken
in their sockets, but remarkably expressive and full of fire.
Their lips are well formed, their teeth clear and beautiful,
their faces long, and terminated by a black curly beard. The
moustache and eyebrows are thick and full. The Fellahs of
Upper Egypt are of a copper colour, and thin and spare in
their proportions. Li the form and features' of the female
Fellah may be found a striking and perfect resemblance to
the former population of Egypt, as we find their representa-
tion sculptured on the most ancient monuments. Such as are
the statues of Isis, such are the women of modern Egypt.
We are thus brought to two most interesting conclusions ; the
one, the criterion afforded by art for judging of the ancient
state of Egyptian genius; the other, corroborating the evidence
of science respecting the influence which the climate of a
country has upon its inhabitants. The artists in the court of
the Pharaohs drew after nature ; nature afforded them models
for their divinities ; and the people still are the living proofs
of the accuracy with which the artists of the old time repre-
sented the forms of nature. It is, indeed, in the bare outline
in which this is so evidently the case, for some of the prin-
ciples of their polytheistic faith prevented them .from accurately
copying the human form ; but it is in the general character of
the whole that the case is so. evident.

The Fellah women are not remarkable for any great beauty;
but there is an indescribable charm about them, a grace and
elegance which attracts immediate attention. They marry
about the age of twenty ; and generally in less than five years
are worn down by misery and fatigue, the cares of 'a "'family
whose wants they can ill supply, and the harsh and cruel
treatment of their husbands; In many of the Egyptian cities
these mothers may be seen, sometimes with a child astride
their shoulders, and another in then arms, while they are
compelled at the same time to bear a heavy burden on their
heads ; sometimes, almost destitute of clothing, lying at full
length in sunny streets or public squares, with children, per-
fectly naked, and as filthy as neglect and superstition can
make them, playing by their sides.

The food of the Fellahs is almost entirely vegetable. It.
consists of a piece of bread, badly cooked, dates, and wild
fruits, occasionally a morsel of cheese, a small portion of fish,
and at very rare intervals a piece of meat. The water of.
the Nile is their common drink ; . the sole luxury they possess .

being an occasional pipe and cup of coffee. The Fellahs smoke
a peculiar species of tobacco common to the soil, which is
prepared by a simple process, and affords an agreeable perfume. •
The coffee is made remarkably strong, and taken without
sugar.

The national costume of the Fellahs is a long robe drawn
together at the waist by a girdle of red cloth ; a pan of full
drawers or trousers of. blue or white calico. The head is
covered with, a turban- of. white cotton. The feet and lower,
part of the legs are naked. The dress, of the Fellah women,
is a long robe of blue or brown. The head- dress is more com- ;
plicated than that of the men. A handkerchief of silk and
cotton is attached to the hood, and covers the. lower part of
the face, hanging down upon the bosom in a long peak ; this
hides the whole of the features with the exception of the eyes,
and produces a very extraordinary effect. ' An under covering
of white cotton descends upon the forehead, and the whole of
the head-dress is ornamented with pearls, when the Egyptian
is fortunate enough to possess any, but usually with pieces of
•:" shiny. metal;- Their wrists are decorated with large beads, and
there is an air of coquetry about these women altogether
which is strangely inconsistent with their oppressed condition,
and the miserable labour to which they are condemned.

In very many cases it is a hard matter for the Fellah to pre-
serve himself "and family from starvation. His whole life is a
"struggle with 'circumstances for a bare subsistence, though it
can hardly be called a struggle, for they are so beaten down
that they possess but a small amount of energy ; there is in
them a stolid indifference, a dogged resignation, a fearful sub-
mission to the tyranny of those who govern ; a few dates and
a pipe, or a cup of coffee and a pipe, appear to soothe them
and' satisfy' their wants.'' One English traveller, indeed, tells
us that a discontented' Egyptian vented his discontent, and
expressed his idea of liberty, by wishing that the English
would come over and subvert the Moslem sway—they have no
hope in themselves, no trust in their own energy and power.
The Fellah women are cordial,- patient, and affectionate ; they
are far more industrious than the men, and bear all their trials
with tranquil resignation, submitting to the harsh government
of the husband with perfect docility, One great distinctive
inequality subsists between these companions in misery. The
husband is imperious and cruel. He eats his scanty meal
alone, his wife waiting on him as a slave. When he has satis-
fied his wants, she is permitted to partake of what remains.
She must not speak with ' him, without having received
authority from her lord. Her obedience and conjugal love are
worthy of a better fate. When any change in the government
administration takes place, it nearly always produces great
imposts ; and the people, already taxed and enslaved, are com-
pelled to render more assistance. In this case it sometimes
happens that a Fellah is unable to furnish the money
"required. He strives hard, but cannot accomplish his pur-
pose ; the officers of the government pronounce him. refrac-
tory, he is lodged in the common prison, and punished with "
the bastinado. The wife of the unhappy man immediately
sets about his liberation, and pleads with the officers and
magistrates, as a woman only can plead, that her husband may
be spared. She exerts not only her eloquence, but her
industry, so that if her words are unavailing, she may at last
be able 'to furnish the required sum, and have her lord
restored to her.

_ The wretched people are continually e'xp'osed to these'
shameful outrages. Every article of produce' is taxed, aiul
the sum is arbitrarily arranged by the pacha liimself. Thus
the Fellahs are reduced to abject slavery, and live oil, hr
something worse than the fatalism of the Turk — something far
different from., the resignation of ' the martyr ^- something
entirely distinct from the calm which precedes a storm, — in aj
life which is only a sort of vegetation, which knows no energy,
no hope, no elevating principle, and casts them down far lower'
than the brutes. .

On. approaching an Egyptian village, tile numerous turrets;
present the appearance of a grand' bazaar; hut a nearer view:
shows us that even the houses, of. the wealthy, are' but poor and--

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31

ill provided, and that the- dwellings of the common people are
little better than mud huts. The plague which raged in
Egypt in the year 1838 was the means of drawing the atten-
tion of the government to the condition of these habitations,
and some remedial measures were applied, but their state is
still deplorable. The scenery along the shores of the Nile is
flat and uninteresting. Here and there, however, the fields of
grain, the .orange-groves, the gardens abounding in vegetables
and flowers, the stately palm, the acacia, the locust-tree,
relieve the monotony of the prospect. But the fact cannot be
disguised, that, amid "all, the "homes of the agricultural
peasantry are of a most miserable and wretched description.

The improvements which Mehemet Ali introduced were of
course attended with some expense, and this was raised by a
tax imposed on the people. Many of the Fellahs being unable
to furnish the necessary amount, various committals to gaol
ensued, and the sanatory measures were productive of even .
more evil than good, plunging very many into great distress,
and producing much increase to the poverty and wretched-
ness of the labouring population.

Most of the Fellah villages are situated in localities the least
adapted for the preservation of health ; the houses are built of
earth ; the animal overflowing of the Nile renders the whole
neighbourhood unhealthy. Miasmatic vapours are continually
arising, and the atmosphere is most pernicious ; the cemeteries
are over-crowded and ill-arranged ; the tombs badly kept, and
no precautionary measures adopted to prevent the spread of
infection. The thousands who died of the plague are here
huddled together, and the fatal odour arising from the grave-
yards charges the air with the most deleterious principles.
The water becomes impregnated with the same hurtful proper-
ties ; and in a country where every precautionary measure
should be adopted — where sanatory reform is more necessary
than in any other part of the world— the whole Of the agricul-
tural population are exposed to the deadly effects of a fetid
atmosphere, together with all the misery- and wretchedness
which idleness, poverty, and oppression can bring upon them.

The ordinary habitations of the Fellahs are composed of
mud and straw. A date-tree forms the centre of the building,
its branches and leaves the celling. The exterior wails are
covered with clematis and honeysuckle, and two or three
palms cast their shadow on the house. Within the enclosure,
the father, mother, children, beasts of burden, and poultry, are
thronged together. There the smoking goes on continually —
there the provisions are cooked— there the family sleep. The
only light and air which serve to render the place at all habit-
able are admitted through small windows, or rather loopholes
made in the walls. The husband and wife have each a box or
cupboard, and these are the only pieces of furniture which
deserve any special attention. These boxes are composed of
the wood of the lemon-tree which grows on the banks of the
Nile. The opening is fastened by a sort of latch, and the
whole is curiously carved and decorated. The Fellahs prize
these boxes very highly ; in them they store all they count as
valuable, gifts from friends, decorated robes, ornaments, &c,
and in winter cheese and dates.

The hand-mill is another object which attracts attention in
the home of the Fellah. The mill is composed of two pieces
of stone, one immoveable, having ah upright pivot on which
the other stone moves. They are generally made from the
remains of old columns. This is the only purpose, to which
the Fellah devotes the relics of his country's by-gone glory.
Many of these mills are covered with the most curious and
interesting sculp tures. With the exception of certain vases
of porous earth, these are the only objects which possess any
interest, indeed the only furniture" which a Fellah home
exhibits.

The Fellahs have no inventive genius. They are creatures
of habit. Their agricultural pursuits are conducted oh the
traditions which from father to son have been handed down
concerning the method pursued in the old days of Egypt. '
Otherwise, they are totally ignorant. They have never •
examined, and know nothing about, the systems of Other
nations. They reject every new idea, resent every innova-

tion upon "the good old w r ay," • ridicule every improvement,
and entertain a supreme contempt for everything modern.
The waters of the Nile, which effect great . disorder in their
annual inundations, might possibly be so governed as to be
rendered far more serviceable than they .are— art might unite
with nature in her irrigating process— but the pacha regards
all such attempts as signs of mental alienation, and every
European effort is balked with a malice truly discouraging.
When the Egyptian boatman hears of steam-navigation, he
angrily demands of the European, " Where, dog, is a steam-
boat, that it should sail better than our fathers' boats r" The
Egyptians divide the year into three rural divisions : winter,
summer, and Nile. The whole of the fertile country is very
flat; but the -lands which are nearest the river are rather
higher than those which are farther remote. This, has been
supposed to result from a greater amount of mud deposited
upon the former ; but this, however, cannot be the case, for it
is observed that the fields near the river are generally above
the reach of the inundation, while those towards the mountains
are abundantly overflowed ; but while the latter yield but one
crop, the former are cultivated throughout the whole year ;
and it is the constant cultivation and frequent watering that so
considerably raise the soil, not so much by the deposit of mud
left by the water, as by the accumulation of stubble and
manure. The cultivable soil throughout Egypt is free from
stones, excepting in parts immediately adjacent to the desert.
It almost everywhere abounds with nitre.

The annual inundation irrigates the land sufficiently for one
crop, but not Without any labour of the Fellah ; for care must
be taken to detain the water by means of dams, or it would too
soon subside. The highest rise of the Nile ever known would
scarcely be sufficient if the waters' were allowed to drain off
the fields when the river itself falls. A very high rise of the
Nile is indeed an event not less calamitous than a very scanty
rise ; for it overflows the vast tracts of land which cannot be

• drained, it washes down many of the mud-built villages, and
occasions an awful loss of lives as well as property.* Nearly
the whole of the soil which in Egypt is adapted to .agricultural
purposes, has been deposited by the river. , This would,
perhaps, lead one to think .that the banks would ultimately
become too high to be subject to the inundation, but it must
be borne in mind that the bed of the river rises at the same
time, and in the same degree. " At Thebes^ the Nile rises
about thirty-six feet; at the Cataract about forty ; at Rosetta,
owing to the proximity of the mouth, it only rises to the
height of about three-and-a-half. The Nile begins to rise in
the end of June, or the beginning of July— that is to say, about
or soon after the summer solstice, — and attains its greatest
height hi the end of September, or sometimes (but rarely) in
the beginning of October, — that is to say, about or soon after
the autumnal equinox. During the first three months of its
decrease, it loses about half the height it has attained, and

# during the remaining six months, it falls more and more
slowly. It generally remains not longer than three or four
days at its maximum, and the same, length of time at its
minimuni ; it may therefore be said to be three months on the
increase, and nine months gradually falling ; it often remains
Without any apparent increase or dimunition at other times
than those of its greatest or least elevation, and is subject to
other slight irregularities.. The Nile becomes turbid a little
before its rise -is apparent, and soon after it assumes a green
Hue, which it retains more than a fortnight. It is not drunk by
the people while it is green, there being a supply previously
drawn, and kept in cisterns.

The boats .still bear the husbandmen ugon the . water— the
seed is still scattered in the flood— bread cast upon the waters
— the most primitive methods of agriculture are pursued, and
it seems as if with the Fellah people time had ceased his
march. But in their condition there is something more than
a natural disposition for indolence. It is not alone the lazy
bias which has reduced them to their present state. They are
governed by a system as fickle as it is tyrannical. . The.

* Englishwomen in Egypt.

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features of that system are discoverable throughout the whole
arrangements of the land. The pacha is a tyrant ; the courtiers
are tyrants ; high and low are alike subject to the most degrad-
ing punishments. In the harems of the rich and powerful the
women are frequently guilty of the most abominable acts of
cruelty and oppression. Among the middle and lower classes
both wives and female slaves are often treated with the utmost
brutality. The former are often cruelly beaten, and the latter
not unfrequently beaten to death. A recent traveller tells us
that a man not long since beat a female slave so severely, that

said, an Egyptian. He was one of the cruel lords into whose
hands it was foretold the people should be given over ; and
Egypt bears perhaps as many marks of his cruelty as of his
wisdom. "Egypt itself," says an old English writer, " has
become the land of obliviousness ; her ancient civility is gone ;
her glory, as a phantasma, hath vanished ; her youthful days
are over, and her face hath become wrinkled. She no longer
poreth upon the heavens, her astronomy is dead in her, and
knowledge maketh not her cycles. Memnon resoundeth not
unto the sun, and Nile heareth strange voices. Her deities

FELLAH WOMEN.

she lingered in great pain for about a week, and then died ;
and that another beat one of his female slaves till she threw
herself from the window and was lulled on the spot. The
Fellahs are subjected to the most cruel treatment, and the
wives and children of the Eellahs find harsh and bitter tyrants
in husbands and fathers.

The wisdom of the Egyptians was in the old time proverbial,
but they are now remarkable for mental inferiority. "We
frequently hear, indeed, of Mehemet Ali as a wonderful man ;
and so he was ; but he was a Greek, and not, as is sometimes

have departed, her pomp is spoiled, and the ornaments of her
past greatness which, remain serve to shadow forth the prin-
ciple of vicissitude and the ceaseless effluxion of things."

Travellers tell us, that while the Egyptians are as destitute
of thought and reflection as children, they have not their
quickness of observation ; that for guides the Egyptian boys
are in all respects superior to the men. The boys are as
remarkable for their cleverness as the men are for their
stupidity. " I had," one says, "two of them at Thebes, and,
in my visits to the ' tombs of the kings/ as guides and water-

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3a

carriers, and, though they were mere children (not more than
six or eight years old), I was delighted with their acuteness
and amiableness. They knew only a word or two of English,
and I only a few words of Arabic ; yet we managed to make
use of our stock in such a way as to be at no loss for conver-
sation. Their names were Mohammed? and Mohammed Ali ,-
the latter of whom, who had only the shred of a bemoose or
cloak, no marakub or ' shoes,' and no kejiah, ' covering for the
head,' I called, for reasons I need not specify, Tlmsa, or
< crocodile,' which name he joyfully adopted, never failing,
when he saw me approaching the shore, to shout from among
the rest of his companions, ' Ana Tlmsa ! Timsa ! Water-boy
very good ; guide-boy very good. Timsa Mohammed Ali !'
On the day before leaving Thebes they followed me to the
kanjiah or Nile boat on the opposite shore, and requested me
to put them * in a book as Mohammed and Mohammed Ali
Timsa, water-boys— guide -boys — very good ;' which,' should I

ness, its pyramids, its sphynxes, its tombs despoiled, its
ruined temples, its buried cities from which the glory has
departed. Looking upon these objects, the mind reverts to
the old, old story of the Pharaohs, and contrasts the former
greatness of Egypt's sons with the present condition of its
people.

The direct taxes on land are about eight shillings per feddan,
which is somewhat less than an English acre. But the culti-
vator can never calculate exactly the full amount of what the
government will require of him. The Eellah, to supply bare
necessaries of life, is often obliged to steal, and convey secretly
to his hut, as much as he can of the produce of the land. He
may either himself supply the seed for his land, or obtain it as
a loan from the government ; but in the latter case he seldom
obtains a sufficient quantity, a considerable portion being
stolen by the persons through' whose hands it passes before he
receives it. The oppressions which the peasantry of Egypt

A FELLAH DWELLING.

ever write one, I promised to do. Poor boys ! all this acute-
ness and amiableness will be beaten out of them before they
are men. I shall see their pensive faces no more !

" I have mentioned beating. To this all classes are exposed
in Egypt, and this all classes inflict. The master beats the
servant, the reis or captain beats the crew, the husband beats
the wife, the parent beats the children, and the khadee beats
them all. I have seen a janizary in Cairo strike a man with
the belt of his korbaj on the mouth till it gushed with blood,
and then kick him as he lay on the ground crouching and
moaning like a beast of prey, having neither spirit to resist
nor sense to escape."

The Babylonian, the Persian, the Greek, 1 the Roman, the
Saracen, the Turk, have each in turn overrun and subdued the
country, and now it is scarcely possible for humanity to sink
lower than it has sunk in that unhappy land. It is with melan-
choly that we look upon the monuments of its former great-
Voi, I.

endure, from the dishonesty of the Mamoors and inferior
officers, are indescribable. It would be scarcely possible for
them to suffer more and live. The pacha has not only taken
possession of the lands of the private proprietors, but he has
also thrown into his treasury a considerable proportion of the
incomes of religious and charitable institutions, deeming their
accumulated wealth superfluous. The tax upon the palm-
trees has been calculated to amount to about a hundred thou- .
sand pounds sterling. The income-tax is generally a twelfth
or more of a man's annual income or salary. In the larger
towns it is levied upon individuals ; in the villages upon
houses. The income-tax of all the inhabitants of the metro-
polis amounts to eight thousand purses, or about forty thou-
sand pounds sterling.

Servants of servants, they arc held in bitter bondage. Their
country, once the pride of the world— once the focus of
wisdom, beauty, and truth, — a land which still boasts immortal

D

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monuments in its vast pyramids — so dark and -wretched, so
low down in the scale of nations, that its glory is gone
altogether, and notliing but slavery and darkness remain. Yet
Egypt Has monuments of antiquity surpassing all others on
the globe. History camiot tell when the most stupendous of
them was constructed ; and it would be no improbable pro-
phecy that they are destined to remain to the end of time.
"Those enormous constructions— assuming to rank with
nature's ancient works on this planet, and raised as if to defy
the powers of man, and the elements, and time to demolish
them, by a generation that retired into the impenetrable dark-
ness of antiquity when their work was done — stand on the
surface in solemn relationship to the subterraneous mansions
of death. A shade of mystery rests on the whole economy
to which all these objects belonged. Add to this our associa-
tions with the region from those memorable transactions and
phenomena recorded in sacred history, by which the imagina-
tion has been, so to speak, permanently located in it, as a field
crowded with primeval interests and wonders."

Everything connected with the land of Egypt is full of
interest, — and none more so than the present condition of its
Eellah, or agricultural population.

THE ECCENTRIC STUDENT.

BY PERCY B. ST. JOHN.

I have travelled much in my time. There are few important
places in Europe, or America, which bear not the imprint of
my footsteps ; and, if during the second, and, I hope, longer
part of my existence, I only peregrinate as much as I have
since the memorable year in which I was born — that of
Napoleon's death, I shall run a good chance of being as great
a traveller as the Wandering Jew, I have been to school in
Caen, in Paris, at Dijon, in Switzerland, in London, and in other
places. Schools are pretty well the same everywhere, at least
I found them so ; but student life is as varied as the military
imiform of England, France, and Germany. A London law
and medical student, a French etudiaut and a German, have,
however, many ideas in common, and remarkable resemblances.
All in general indulge largely in tobacco ; your genuine
British youth swallows huge draughts of Barclay and Perkins ;
your true Gauls imbibe burnt brandy, blue wine, and a decoc-
tion of quassia, good-naturedly . taken as beer ; while the
German rising generation ingulph huge quantities of a similar
liquor.

Strasburg is, perhaps, one of the most original localities in
which to study student life in France. Its Germanic style,
its provincial character, with the fiery and energetic nature of
its young aspirants for legal and medical honours, rendered
it far more enlivening, in my eyes, even than Paris or Heidel-
berg. The city contains about 80,000 inhabitants, of whom
nearly one thousand are young men, aspiring to be either
lawyers, doctors, or magistrates ; far more than can obtain
useful results. France has, since the revolution of 1789, and
especially since the peace, laboured under a great disadvan-
tage. For every lawyer, doctor, magistrate, and civil servant
who can possibly gain a living, there are at least ten students
seeking the vacant position. Not more than twenty per cent,
of those who go through severe preliminary studies, to qualify
. themselves for the schools which lead to a certain social
position, are received ; and, every year, a host of half-educated
young men, brought up in ideas which render a return to a
more humble position almost impossible, are cast loose upon
society, to become in many instances poor clerks, adventurers,
and too often cafe-habitues , estanrinet heroes, and even galley
slaves.

There are usually in Strasburg, at all events, seven or eight
hundred young men, seeking to make themselves a liberal
position, or rather, who are supposed to be seeking to do so.
Some go there with a firm determination to do their duty to
themselves, their parents, and society ; others simply to spend
their allowance, to amuse themselves, to be free from the

trammels of home, and to learn the elaborate arts of billiard-
playing, piquet, ecarte, and the other scientific peculiarities of
the French cafe.

About six months before the revolution of 1848, I paid a
visit to the city of Strasburg. I carried letters of introduc-
tion to several persons? but I found little benefit from any save
one. I certainly got into very pleasant circles, but my desire
was to learn something of the less formal classes of society.

My new friend, Arthur B , was about my own age, a

month or two younger ; he had just been received at the bar,
but had not yet left the city where he had completed his
education. Though he moved in very good society, he did
not abandon his old acquaintances, the students. He pre-
served amicable and friendly relations with many of them,
and as I expressed a great desire to study their manners and
customs, he introduced me into their haunts ; and as I am
generally supposed to speak French sufficiently well to deceive
many a practised ear, T got on at once admirably. During
several months I devoted many hours every day to their
society. As soon as I had completed my morning quantum
of work, I sallied forth among them. I became for the time
being a student myself, in appearance, in manners, in habits.
I had never, singularly enough, been really a student, and
though a year or two past the age at which in general men
are so called, I was delighted to be one even in fancy for a
time.

It soon became a problem for me, as to when all these young
men studied. I always found the greater number of them at
a large and popular estaminet. My first introduction to
this place was amusing. My friend M. Arthur took me to the
Milles Colonnes — a cafe monopolised by the students. I
entered the doorway, and found myself in a large room, so
dark with smoke, that I could not clearly distinguish objects.
I blundered on, however, my friend having politely yielded
me the pas, in search of a seat ; but so indistinct were as yet
all objects to me, that crash ! crash ! and here I was brought
to a sudden stop against a waiter, upsetting his tray, and
breaking three glasses. A merry, but not a mocking laugh,
thus signalised my entree. Next minute, however, I was
seated at a table, and, as the only remedy against the thick
atmosphere of tobacco smoke, took a pipe myself. In five
minutes all disagreeable sensation was over, and I could sec
clearly. I found myself in a large room ; in the centre was a
billiard-table, around were small tables, occupied by students,
all smoking, taking coffee and beer, and playing at cards.
Every one used a pipe, cigars being things in Avhich the juve-
nile savants of France rarely indulge — the surety that the
art of blackening a common clay pipe forms one of the great
features in the life of a student.

One day at the estaminet stood for all. Cards continued
until about one, when the important question being thus
settled, as to who were to pay .for the morning's consumption,
the billiard- tables were seized upon, more beer ordered, more
tobacco— at Strasburg eightpence a pound — and until three
nothing was heard but the rolling of balls and the strokes of
the players. At three the students abandoned the cafe, some
to take a walk, some to read, some- to keep an appointment ;
but at six all were again at their post, and until twelve o'clock
the same scene was presented. At twelve the cafe rigorously
closed, but a few of the students were inclined for bed, they
in general adjourned to the lodgings of mutual friends, and
consumed several more hours in chinking and smoking. One
tiling struck me at the Milles Colonnes, viz., that no money
was ever paid. All the students had unlimited credit. No
matter how extensive their orders, they were always executed,
the proprietor having recourse to the parents when any of
the young men failed to pay their account.

One evening my Mend Arthur took me, about seven o'clock,
to the residence of one of the students-at-law. I found about
a dozen young men assembled. On the table was a vast bowl,
containing a whole loaf of white sugar, around which the -
host was engaged in pouring a huge quantity of brandy. The
bowl once filled, the whole mass was ignited. The scene was
singularly picturesque. The large half-furnished room, the